White Gold Uzbekistan, A Slave Nation For Our Cotton? Environmental Jus�ce Founda�on in partnership with the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights “When“When youyou paypay thethe equivalentequivalent ofof twotwo matchboxesmatchboxes forfor aa kilogramkilogram ofof highhigh qualityquality co�on,co�on, it’sit’s easiereasier toto bendbend thethe backsbacks andand willswills ofof schoolchildrenschoolchildren andand studentsstudents toto gogo intointo thethe fields.”fields.” ParentParent ofof schoolchildschoolchild forcedforced toto harvest co�on harvest co�on, Karakalpakstan1 Karakalpakstan20091 2009 WELCOME INTRODUCTION Since 2004, the Environmental Jus�ce Founda�on Co�on produc�on in Uzbekistan is one of the most (EJF) has documented and exposed the use of exploita�ve enterprises in the world. forced labour and environmental damage in Uzbekistan - the world’s 6th largest producer of co�on co�on produc�on in the Central Asian Republic - is unique for the scale of the state-sponsored, forced of Uzbekistan. Over the past 6 years, we have mobilisa�on of schoolchildren during the annual co�on produced 3 campaign reports and ‘White Gold’, harvest. Child labour is not the result of poverty or family an award-winning film, and we have led an need. It is at the behest of and directly benefits one of the interna�onal coali�on, which now comprises world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes, which makes interna�onal NGOs, labour unions and interna�onal an es�mated US$1 billion [£622 million] from the annual retailers and clothing brands. sale of 1 million tonnes of co�on. EJF works with the Uzbek-German Forum for Two years a�er the Government signed two Interna�onal Human Rights (UGF), which has documented the Labour Organisa�on (ILO) (Conven�ons in an a�empt to issue in Uzbekistan for the past 3 years and whose curtail interna�onal cri�cism) the 2010 co�on harvest was informa�on and visual images have been invaluable again marked by state-sponsored, child and adult forced contribu�ons to this briefing and exhibi�on. The labour. work of UGF, human rights ac�vists and NGOs, together with independent journalists is essen�al Over the past 3 years, a number of major interna�onal in documen�ng and exposing abuses linked to retailers and clothing brands including Tesco, Walmart- co�on produc�on, and suppor�ng human rights in Asda, Marks and Spencer, Gap, Levis and C & A have Uzbekistan. pledged to avoid the use of Uzbek co�on in their supply chains. As the 2010 co�on harvest reaches its end, the photo exhibi�on on display in the Upper Wai�ng Such laudable voluntary ini�a�ves from the private sector Hall together with this event serve as a reminder of have not been matched by ac�on at a policy level in the problems inherent in Uzbek co�on produc�on Europe, a major end-point for Uzbek co�on. – the misuse of natural water resources that have contributed to the draining of the Aral Sea, and the This event aims to promote long-term solu�ons to forced ongoing use of forced child and adult labour in the labour and environmental damage and support for annual co�on harvest. workable, durable and effec�ve policy solu�ons. EJF, UGF and our interna�onal partners con�nue to press for the interna�onal community to support efforts that will help secure poverty “Cotton is politics. To be reduc�on, respect for fundamental human rights, environmental protec�on and sustainable rural against cotton is to be development in Uzbekistan. We hope that you will join with us in this endeavour. against the state”. Teacher, Bukhara, 2009. A SUMMARY OF MODERN�DAY SLAVERY With a dearth of mechanised harvesters, and inability to pay a decent living wage to adult farm labourers, children, students and adults from across Uzbekistan’s co�on-growing regions make up the labour shor�all, and are systema�cally dra�ed in by government agencies to handpick the annual co�on harvest. • Es�mates suggests as many as 2 million children as young as 10 or 11 years old witness their schools closed for 2-3 months each year whilst they are taken to the co�on fields. • Co�on picking is arduous labour, with each child given a daily quota of many kilos that they must pick. They can face threats, bullying or physical abuse if they refuse or fail to pick their quota. • Children may be compelled to work and live in difficult condi�ons, drinking from irriga�on pipes and provided with inadequate food and accommoda�on. The harvest begins in late summer when temperatures are high, and con�nues un�l the onset of the Uzbek winter. • Children receive li�le or no pay for their labour – many are reported to end the harvest in debt, once deduc�ons for their transport to the field and food provided are taken into account. Children are promised 100 soms (£0.04) per kilo of harvested seed cotton - yet the world price for cotton fibre is now an average of £1.55 per kilo6. By law, Uzbekistan’s farmers must sell their co�on to the WHY FORCED LABOUR? state-controlled company (Uzkhlopkoprom) that operates all of Uzbekistan’s co�on gins. The price paid by the “Co�on is poli�cs, do not joke with it2.” government is about one-third of the interna�onal market price, but many farmers receive even less - as li�le as one- “If they pay good money for the labour, there won’t be any tenth the global price - because their high-grade co�on need to bother school teachers or military. If the payment o�en is judged as “low grade”. is good, even those who are in Russia will come back and pick their co�on3”. Uzbekistan’s government owns 51 percent of Uzkhlopkoprom. Informa�on has never been publicly “If the farmers pay 200 soms instead of 100 per kilo, released regarding who owns the remaining 49 percent of everyone will go and pick co�on. But the farmers cannot the state co�on monopoly - reports suggest the privately afford that, because the cost of the co�on is priced [by the held shares are controlled by President Karimov’s poli�cal state]4” allies and their rela�ves7. “The price of co�on is defined at the beginning of every year [by the state]. The wages paid for picking co�on are set [by the state] just before the harvest begins. That’s it. What happens on the interna�onal market doesn’t ma�er LAW BREAKING to farmers. No one will pay [the farmers] extra if the price In addi�on to domes�c legisla�on and commitments, of co�on goes up. If the interna�onal market price rises, [it the Government of Uzbekistan has signed and ra�fied is the officials who] reap all the benefits.5“ a number of ILO Conven�ons including the Forced Children are promised 100 soms (£0.04) per kilo of Labour Conven�on No. 29; Minimum Age Conven�on harvested seed co�on - yet the world price for co�on fibre No. 138 (ra�fied by Uzbekistan 2009); and Worst is now an average of £1.55 per kilo6. Forms of Child Labour Conven�on No 182 (ra�fied by Uzbekistan 2008). SEPTEMBER OCTOBER Chronicle of a Cotton Harvest 2010 “This is a waste of �me, the children are taken away from school, they have to fumble in the dust and dirt, exhausted Forced Child Labour from the whole day in order to pick no more than ten kilograms.” SEPTEMBER Tashkent region OCTOBER Surkhandarya The authori�es sent fi�h grade (11 year “I went to Ol�nsoy district yesterday. 4th to 27 old) students to the co�on fields a�er 02 9th grades [10-15 years] are all in the co�on MONDAY school. Older children started working in the SATURDAY fields. They go in the morning and come back fields as early as mid September. Children in the evening. Medical personnel are also were accompanied by teachers and school sent to pick co�on.8” administrators. To get to the fields selected for them, children had to walk for about two kilometers. OCTOBER Yukori-Chirchik district, Tashkent region Children are sent to school at 8:30am. But “At the mee�ngs we had an announcement in the students’ school bags there is no about the district governor’s order that all 04 MONDAY textbook or notebook, but a water bo�le will work in the fields. School principals must and food. Having come to school with a find their own farmers to nego�ate with grand entrance, the children immediately about the harves�ng by schoolchildren, as leave it from the other side, and are sent to well as take on transporta�on costs”. work in the fields.9 “At the field students will gather co�on for one or even two days. This is a waste of �me, Primary schoolchildren of the 4th and 5th the children are taken away from school, OCTOBER grade [10 -11 years] were taken to pick they have to fumble in the dust and dirt, co�on and will not return to studies any�me exhausted from the whole day in order to 12 soon un�l the planned quota for the Angor pick no more than ten kilograms.” TUESDAY district is fulfilled.10 NOVEMBER DECEMBER JANUARY Chronicle of a Cotton Harvest 2010 Harvest’s End? OCTOBER Elena Urlaeva, head of the Uzbekistan Human OCTOBER Two weeks have passed since the annual co�on Rights Defenders’ Alliance reports that quota of Uzbekistan was fulfilled.